Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Restocking Table

I find the default restocking table a little limited. Here's a slightly expanded one, along with notes/examples of how I use it to restock Stonehell Dungeon.

Roll two d6s. If the first demands a monster or special, use the second to determine which.

1d6 Restock Monster Special
1 Monster Same Level Hidden Treasure
2 Monster & Treasure Same Level Trapped Treasure
3 Special Same Level Trap/Trick
4 Nothing Other Level New Room
5 Nothing Other Level Local Color
6 Nothing Outside Encounter

Monster: Usually just repopulated from the wandering monster table of the selected level. If not from the current level, 50/50 up or down, and a 50/50 chance of picking from that level or going one further.
Outside means a new denizen has wandered in. If you have overland encounter tables, you can roll on that or just grab any random monster.

Traps: Obviously something that should be reasonably mobile or could have been quickly constructed.

New Room: Room is substantially changed. Expanded or caved in, new exit, repurposed, or entirely new. On the upper levels of Stonehell, this would probably be the work of the kobold fixin' crews, while on the lower levels, it'd be warped by the nixis' influence.

Local Color: Something small to set the tone. Evidence of the goings on of the other inhabitants like spoor or graffiti, or details of the ecology or just something weird. In Stonehell, I'd roll on that d100 table in the back.

Encounter: The kind of things that are too specific for a monster table, but don't require a room remodel. Quests, NPCs, a unique monster, etc.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Formula for BD&D Ability Score Bonus

While working on an initiative tool, I worked out a formula for your Ability Score bonus using the Basic D&D bell curve spread. (18 = 3, 16-17 = 2, 9-12 =0, etc.)

It works well, with the bonus past 18 increasing by 1 for ever 2 points in your score, until you hit a score of 24, which is a third value of 5 instead of moving on to 6. You can't really push the breakdown point higher unless you're willing to get fancier than I am. However, unless you're playing 3rd ed (with its own bonus spread) you're unlikely to come across Ability Score that high anyway, so this should probably serve you.

Anyway, here's the formula. The symbols surrounding it refer to the floor function, meaning you round down. The forward slash means division.

Bonus = ⌊(Ability Score - 10.5) / 2.3⌋

Or spelled out:
  1. Subtract 10.5 from your ability score.
  2. Divide by 2.3
  3. Round down. That's your bonus.

Here's the Excel formula. ROW() is the Abiltity Score, just replace that if you want to do it by value instead of row.

=ROUNDDOWN((ROW()-10.5)/2.3,0)

Here it is in C#, the whole reason I wanted a formula.

int bonus = (int)Math.Truncate((18 - 10.5) / 2.3d)

Cumberland County: Deputies in the Fantasy Deep South

AKA: Rural Fantasy, Backwoods Detectives, Swamp Noir
Major Influences: Fantasy Redneck Adventure Generator, The Andy Griffith Show
Minor Influences: Southern Gothic, D&D
System: Roll for Shoes
Campaign: Series of one-shot mysteries. 2.5 so far

Upon discovering the Fantasy Redneck Adventure Generator, I was so enamored with the mashup I knew I had to run it. Check it out. It's fantastic.
While the actual entries from the generator haven't made much impact, the flavor caries through.

Players are deputies, investigating crimes in a mashup of tropes from standard fantasy and the Deep South. Schoolmarms, moonshiners, jalopies, and southern plantations meet miracle performing priests, orcs, giant crabs, and magic.

Adapted from the Pokethulu map